Bravo! Contemporary Western culture in a nutshell. The individual has given her/his right to humanity, dignity and existence over to heartless, self preserving, "bottom line" institutions that were created to be a "benefit" to us. I can see an optimistic viewpoint in the "Promethean enthusiasm" depiction as the altruistic activities of many pure hearted inventors or researchers seeking solutions to humanity's ills with the shadow side waiting in the wings for those creative efforts to be made into profitable merchandise. With that in mind, I see the shadow side more powerful in today's society and thus I gravitate to the "Faustian Bargain" depiction. I find today that institutions such as McDonalds have adapted to the desires of the masses not because of the health benefits or otherwise of a change in their offerings, but because of the desire to maintain profits. So the friendly image, the caring image is maintained along with the parasitic grip, that had been created earlier. The Faustian Bargain has monetized everything from air to water to food (basically Maslow's hierarchy) and our societal desires. I am reminded of the loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" in the movie "Forbidden Planet" where the genius of an other worldly race destroyed itself over night through the unleashing of its shadow side via a mind/computer connection. Today this type of connection is being spearheaded by the genius of Ray Kurtzweil, a Promethean yet Faustian mind. With this said there might be a fourth possible scenario-that of total societal destruction from without, the force of Kali, taking from us the society and our self-serving institutions we choose not to control and causing us to begin anew from the ashes. There' a shadow in the wings.
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In many myths, a hero, god, or avatar appears right when the giants or demons seem bent on destroying the world. I wonder what that might look like today?
In other myths, the giants or demons bent on destroying the world appear when the hero, god or avatar appears to do battle and save the world. I was listening to Robert Bly’s “The Human Shadow” last night, and he talks about the shadow of America’s political Left rising in rebellion and attacking the Mondale/Hart Democratic ticket in 1984 (significant?), resulting in the election of Reagan and the destruction that followed. This theme has been repeated for innumerable elections, before and after. With Hillary announcing her presidential candidacy today, the question is not “Will there be a repeat of this theme?” but “When will this theme repeat?”